Broken Pieces.

[ I assume we're picking up right after IW so that's where I'm starting this thing Lol. ]

Calliope couldn't breathe. She also couldn't quite wrap her mind around all the events that had unfolded in the last week alone. This week had literally been the worst one of her life, and sadly that wasn't an understatement. She'd lost her planet, half of her people, nearly her husband, and now her baby was gone. A baby she'd only just given birth to and hadn't even had a chance to officially name yet. It didn't help that she'd done that part alone and honestly unaware of if Thor was even still alive. Clearly, she saw that he was alive now given they were in the same room now, however not even that was able to ease her pain.

"What just happened?" Calliope managed to get out. "Our daughter just, she just, did she die? This isn't right," she cried as she buried her face in her hands. Losing her newborn baby was the cherry on top of the cake for worst week ever. And she truly didn't understand how any of this had happened. For starters who the hell did this Thanos guy think he was? And what the hell made him think he had some birthright or something insane to go around slaughtering innocent people and calling it mercy? Asgard had been prospering, it's people were happy, and even though they'd lost their home, which they were sad about, they were all still so willing to follow her and Thor to the ends of the universe because the people trusted them. Honestly, Calliope had never really understood anyone's need to try and take over the universe, especially by killing mass amounts of people. Who really needed that much power and why did they feel they needed it? Couldn't they just find something else to fulfill their lives?

---

Loki paced the hallway back and forth trying to actually wrap his head around everything he'd witnessed. Asgard had been laid to waste pretty much, he had no idea where everyone else had ended up other than Yiva, his brother, and sister-in-law. Of course, he'd barely made it off the ship before he likely would've died with so many others. He just didn't quite understand how things had gotten here. He really wasn't sure why Thanos was even after all the infinity stones anyways. Well, he understood that Thanos had some desire to rid the universe of half of it's people as to hopefully make it a better and happier place, but Loki didn't quite understand that, because not everywhere was sad. Not every planet was poor and unable to prosper because maybe they had too many people. So wiping out half of everywhere so they could start over just didn't fully make sense. Loki understood this need to be a king if you wanted to call it that, he understood the need to want to rule over people. But not the entire universe, he felt like that was setting yourself up for failure. He wouldn't have minded just ruling over one planet though.

"How do you think they're doing in there?" He asked Yiva. He'd been pacing outside of the room Calliope and his brother was in. He'd somehow found Calliope shortly after she'd been sent to Midgard and had kind of stuck with her. Yes he'd done bad things in the past, but he was really working on being a better brother to Thor and Calliope, and really just a better man all around so that maybe he could earn his way into people's good graces. So of course, he'd stuck with her and Bruce and they'd all ended up in Wakanda before the end battle. But the moment he saw Thor practically rush into her room shortly after he'd heard her scream in the worst agony he'd ever heard, he knew something awful had just happened. "I wonder what happened really?" He said given they'd all been up here for everything. After all, the battlefield wasn't made for pregnant women and someone had to make sure she was kept safe from the craziness.

[ I really hope this is okay... ]

@ Kol.
[Hope this is alright]
Thor was now on Midgard fighting Thanos and his army. They failed and Thanos got what he wanted with a snap of his fingers. In a hurry, Thor ran to the cave to make sure Calliope was alright. He rushed inside to her. “Calliope” he said seeing her pain. “Yes my love she did” he said as he sat on the bed next to her, pulling her into his arms. He kissed her head and held her close. Tears fell from his eyes as he rubbed his wife’s back. He felt like he failed his people and his wife. “I am so sorry” he said. First Rangrok, then thanos killed half his people and now this. All he knew was that he had to make it for his wife and for his people. The maids left the cave, leaving Calliope and Thor alone. “For now the battle has ended” he said softly after a few moments of silence.

---

Ylva sat outside the room, staying silent. She looked down at her hands as she sat. This was all so confusing to her, many questions plagued her mind. One that was prominent was why did Loki decide to save her?. She barely knew him and she was kind of plain in her opinion so why her? She thought to herself. Her thoughts were interrupted by Loki’s voice. “I am not sure. I hope they are okay” she said softly before getting up when she heard the yell. She almost went into help but stayed when she saw the maids come out. “Oh” she said softly, knowing what that meant. “I think we should give them space” she then added as she looked over at Loki.

@ Kol.

[ I'm very sorry this took me so long to reply to. Literally the last 2 months have just kind of been total madness for me, and I honestly haven't felt motived to reply to anything. Things will hopefully be back to normal for me now though and I'll be better at replying! ]

Calliope leaned into her husband when she felt his arms around her, she felt very little comfort right now. Of course, her mind was going what felt like a million miles a minute. There was just so much she needed to process. Honestly, Calliope felt like she should be bawling her eyes out but she wasn't. She wouldn't deny that she was in a lot of heartbreaking pain but now didn't seem like the time to cry about it. "This isn't your fault," Calliope whispered moving her arm up to gently rub Thor's arm that was around her. "We should probably find our people and see what other damage was done," she added softly. This was the more difficult part of being a good queen. Putting your people and their problems and their pain before your own. And Calliope knew how she felt right now, so she was sure their people were just as much agony.

---

Loki nodded his head, "you're probably right," he said knowing that it likely wasn't a happy family reunion on the other side of the door. Loki could only imagine what was happening on the other side of the closed door. Just like he could only imagine what would happen next. He knew that Calliope was a good queen and Thor was a good king they worked really well together. However, his brother even now sometimes did things without thinking all the way first. And so he had hope for once that Calliope might be able to keep his brother at bay. Not that he should be kept at bay given someone had attacked them and clearly done more damage than anyone wanted. But this wasn't the time to act first and think later. This was the time to think and then act. "Walk with me?" Loki finally asked Ylva.

@ Kol.
[ ]
Thor held her close to him, kissing her head. "Love, you need to rest. Loki and Ylva are looking out for the survivors" he said, not wanting his queen to worry about anything but herself. He felt this was on him even tho she said it wasn't his fault. Calliope kept him calm, she was his reason for breathing and the only person that could get through to him. Of course he was angry and wanted revenge but Calliope needed him, that was where he was going to stay. "We will check on our people tomorrow. For now, we rest" he said softly as he rubbed her back. He wanted to take all the pain away from her.

---

Ylva watched Loki, knowing he was deep in thought about the next steps that needed to be taken for Asgard. “Yes” she said softly as she stood up and began walking with Loki. Thoughts began to plague her mind as she looked around at her surroundings. “Sir Loki, May I ask why did you save me?” she asked softly, hoping he would answer her question. She was a plain woman who worked at the castle, mostly in the library where Loki would spend his time but she didn’t think he really noticed her. They had some conversations but she didn’t feel important to him so that’s why she wondered why he saved her. “I don’t mean to question you. I am grateful but I just wondered why” she added, hoping he wouldn’t get angry with her asking.

Calliope moved over on the bed she was in to make it easier for Thor to share the bed with her, "you should rest as well love, neither of us will do well without rest," she told him knowing that he had to be in as much pain as she was. After all, they'd both just lost their child. And the whole concept of that was quite hard for her to wrap her mind around. She couldn't understand how Thanos had gotten everything he'd wanted, or how this could possibly be what he wanted. She did know that at least being near her husband reminded her that she wasn't in this alone, and at least she hadn't lost him as well. Calliope truly had no idea how she'd react if she'd lost Thor as well.

---

Loki stopped in his tracks when Ylva asked what she had. He hadn't really thought about her questioning why he'd saved her. Really he hadn't even thought about it being a big deal. Honestly, Loki had thoroughly enjoyed all of their conversations in the library over the last year mostly. He wasn't always the best at showing emotion and so he could see how it might be confusing, given he hadn't really shared any of that with her. "Well, I like you," he said looking at her with much softer eyes than he usually did. "And I've thoroughly enjoyed all of our conversations over the last year so I knew that I had to save you. Because I didn't like to think of you being taken as a hostage or even murdered,"

Thor nodded in agreement. Everything had fallen apart around him but he still had his Queen. He didn’t know what he would do if he lost her probably go a bit mad. Once she moved, he laid next to her and gently took her into his arms. He kissed her softly as he ran his fingers through her hair, trying to get her to relax. “Love you so much my darling, rest now” he said softly as he continued to play with her hair.

---

Ylva walked with Loki until he stopped. Her eyes met his as she waited for an answer. His answer made a light blush appear across her cheeks. “Thank you sir” she said softly. It was nice to hear him say the words since he had a poker face on most of the time and never talked about feelings. “I enjoyed our conversations too. I enjoy your company” she added with a sweet smile. Most people were scared of Loki but she wasn’t, there was something about him that drew her in.

@ Kol.

@ Kol.

Calliope wasn't sure she would ever truly be able to understand the situation she currently found herself in. It made no sense to her how anyone could want to willingly kill half of the universe with no idea who was actually being 'killed'. Now all over the world, there would be people like her and Thor who lost children, or there would be children who lost parents, or maybe siblings, or both and that didn't seem like a better world to her. Because their daughter hadn't even been out of the womb for five minutes, she wasn't evil, she didn't even know how to talk yet but she'd been taken. And it was because of some psycho who thought getting rid of half the people in the universe was somehow the only way to solve a problem that he'd created really. This was his twisted way of fixing something he messed up. "Do you know if there's a way to reverse this whole mess?" She finally asked Thor hoping that he'd have insight on what to do next, or that he knew someone had a plan to fix everything. If that was even a possibility.

---

Loki smiled at her before he offered his arm figuring they could walk around a bit and explore this new place since it seemed they were going to be staying, at least for the foreseeable future. Honestly, Loki was pretty sure they'd be there until Calliope and Thor were capable of finding somewhere else to go. If that was even the plan, he wasn't really sure. Either way, though they'd still be there a while because they'd just lost a baby due to this whole mess and Loki was sure that they needed at least a day or two to grieve alone before they thought about moving or even telling everyone else what happened. "Would you like to go explore this place with me? Because I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while, and we might as well find our way around,"